Tying the Knots Together
by Tchrin Yuan
Summary: "C'mon Jack! It's beautiful up here! Climb up the tree with me!" "No thanks." He didn't understand why she dragged him out here just to retie fall leaves back onto the tree. Jack/Carly. AU. One-shot.


**Yeah.. Another one shot :D . I got bored, like always, and typed one out. It's a Jack and Carly one. Also note they are only children in this story (around eight), and it's Alternative Universe. **

**Hope you like it. **

**Disclaimer: I obviously, don't own this series.. **

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><p><strong>Tying the Knots Together<strong>

He started to chatter his teeth, his finger's sinking into the fabric of his light black long sleeved shirt, his dark blue vest clinging onto his body. His natural blonde and pointed up hair danced wildly as the strong breeze washed over him, making his limbs numb. There was a combinations of words that described how he felt at the moment, and they were: I'm so cold I think I could die.

The yellow red and orange leaves mocked his emotions as they started to be picked up by the wind and fly across his pale face. He glared at them, his deep violet eyes piercing through the the biotic object as he could imagine them sticking tongues out as they floated in the other direction.

Fall might be less cold then winter, but he still hated it. His dislike for Autumn and Winter killed the annoying scale. He would rather be soaked in sweat then freezing his toes off.

He rolled over to the side as he positioned his body in a more comfortable on the yellow, about-to-be-dead grass and leaned back onto the trunk of the tree. The roots of the tall tree circled his body as he rolled up into a small ball as leaves started to fall on them. He would usually just brush them off his body, but he let the be today. His emotions mixed up together, and he started to become bored.

"C'mon Jack! It's beautiful up here! Climb up the tree with me!"

"No thanks."

Today, his plan was to reach his goal of trying his best to soak in as much vitamin D as he could, and _try to enjoy_ the day even though the place his friend dragged him to was possibly the most disgusting, horrible, haphazard place his eyes ever meet. It was so horrible and ironic because he actually didn't enjoy the day so far, and it only had been ten minutes.

He chattered his teeth once again as the wind smacked him in the face.

And to make it more ironic, the city was blanketed with think gray, black clouds.

Oh, and now stupid melted icicles were going to fall from the sky.

"I don't understand how you hate fall! It's my favourite season. You get to roll down hills, play in the leaves, make leaf piles and jump in them, and many other things!"

"All of that is horrible stuff to me. I don't like it."

"Well maybe you'll like it if you try, Jack! All your doing is sitting on the ground, getting frozen by the wind! If you move around and play, you'll get warmer."

The nine year old boy grunted as he met his friends aqua grey eyes. She sat there, on a tree branch as a small smile decorated her face. Even if he hate to admit it, it did look a little _fun_. And she also looked like she was having fun. But there was something that resisted him to climb that tall, chunky, tree.

He pursed his lips in a straight line, pinching his mittens from the inside.

Quickly and sharply, he replied with a no.

The girl frowned, the instant reaction made him feel guilt tingling in his veins as if a needle had surpassed his personal space and into his skin, sending all the medicine inside.

Another warm coloured leaf slapped his face as it shooed away his thoughts. He growled, showing his teeth as he stood up immediately, his muscles crying in pain as his body stretched. He muttered some words as he felt the pain from his sore muscles release their grip on his physical form. The leaves covering his body scurrying off him as they silently fell on the ground, clashing together with the other leaves making that scrunching sound which he really hated. But he ignored it, and started to grab the small piece of wood that was sewed onto the trunk of the tree, more pieces of wood following after it creating a ladder.

His heart started to soften as the girl in the tree squealed in excitement, beaming happily.

The girl dismissed the annoyed face on her friend when the boy reached the top of the ladder by squeezing him into a hug, thanking him for coming up to play with her. His eyes widened as his mouth drop, terrified and surprised.

"Ahh! Carly! Don't hug me when I'm on the top step of the ladder! I'm gonna fall!" He snapped, his fingers fumbling on the sides of the thick branch she was sitting on as he tried to find grip. Once his arms wrapped around the branch snugly and the tip of his toes balancing on the top ladder, she released him, her face flushing in embarrassment.

"O-oh. I.. I'm sorry Jack! I didn't mean to! I just got to excited and.."

He sighed, sitting bedside her on the tree as the breeze lowered it's violent activity.

Then everything started to become more peaceful.

His friend, Carly, who sat beside him on the thick tree branch started to swing her legs, humming the sweet tune of Row Row Row Your Boat. Her deep raven hair swung around her face. He started to take notice on what the girl was wearing. She had blue and white stripped over-the-knee socks with a light orange skirt. And she had a bug fat blue sweater that was to overly sized for her petite body.

He was going to say something about her getting another sweater because of how big, and baggy this sweater was, but he knew she was just going to spat at him saying that he didn't a special sweater from his mama, or papa.

The wind started to pick up again, and he just sat there, listening as she finished humming Row Row Row Your Boat for the sixth time.

She caught his stare, and beamed. But he couldn't tell how her eyes looked as they were covered with thick, round swirly glasses. "So Jack..!"

"What is it?"

"Lets tie all the leaves back onto this tree!" She suggested enthusiastically. Jack only shot the nine year old girl a stare. Maybe that's what the pile of leaves beside her were for.

"Carly, that's ridiculous," He commented. "Leaves fall off for a reason, stupid."

"I know I know!" She replied. "But the leaves are so pretty on the tree! I think I'll be fun!"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Well how are you going to put the leaves back on anyways? They wont stick on if you just place the leaves on the branch." He demonstrated, placing a leaf from her pile onto the branch and both of them watching as it fell down onto the leaf covered grass below.

"I'm not that dumb Jack," She told him. "I'm gonna use ribbons!"

He stared at her silently. His friend held a weird personality. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Nope!" She giggled as she took out many different ribbons that were hiding out of your pocket. They showed off right in front of his eyes, exposing their different hues of the rainbow, and how neatly trimmed they were..

He actually couldn't believe that she dragged her out here just to _tie the fallen leaves back onto the tree. _

He watched silently as the girl picked up a red leaf, and tied it onto a thin branch with a blue ribbon. She took a while to knot the ribbon though, having this weird technique that she probably picked up from her father or mother. She tied it two times, twirled it together one time, made to bunny ears from the two ends of the loose ribbons - well Jack thought they resembled bunny ears - and knotted them together, the final product being a bow. It didn't make any sense, the knotting technique. It was just so difficult and complicated, something that he also disliked.

A satisfied grin crept upon her lips as Jack leaned on the tree and raised a confused eyebrow. She gave him a thumbs up. "Now your turn!"

"No thank you." He grumbled a small goodnight as he turned to the side and began to snooze on the branch. The boy could feel his female friend frown, and felt her mitten covered hands grab his shoulder, shaking him gently.

"Aw! Come on Jackkkyy! Then climbing up here wouldn't be worth it!"

The truth hit him in the gut, hard.

He growled as he sat up and opened his eyes, patting himself encase of leaves. Grabbing the red ribbon Carly offered, he pulled down his shirt and grasped a leaf that suddenly landed on his nose. Roughly, he pulled out a branch from above of him.

"Jack! Don't pull the branch to roughly! You're hurting the tree!"

Another sigh flew out of his mouth. "Carly, tree's don't have any feelings."

"But they're nature!" She stated. "They're important. Just pull the branch down gently..."

Carly displayed another demonstration on how to 'do things the right way'. Honestly, Jack thought it was wasn't important, and ridiculous. The tree's were going to go to sleep in the winter, and get all brittle anyways. So did it not matter if he pulled onto the elastic branch violently?

He really didn't understand this world.

"And that's what you do. Get it now Jack?"

"What?"

The branch flung upwards when she released her hands off of it and she looked at Jack, sighing at the fact her friend wasn't even paying attention at what came out of her mouth. "Just don't grab violently, and be harsh to the trees."

Carly started to take another leaf, and tie it on another branch.

Even though he might not be interested in the whole 'tying the leaves back on with ribbons' idea, he actually didn't mind. At least he was distracted, and his boredom was finally starting to float away out of his system. To be honest he was actually quite enjoying it, but still staying out of interest.

Actually, he was happy that Carly had dragged him up the tree with her begging and whining. Staying up here and doing something weird was better then staying on the ground and doing nothing and letting the leaves invade your personal space.

And Carly was right, he was warming up.

Tying the leaf onto the branch was actually more difficult then he expected it to be. He grunted as his ribbon fell loose.

"Jack. Can you tie it together?" The raven-headed girl asked, finishing tying her fourth leaf.

"No," He admitted.

She giggled, and carefully took his fingers into her hands, she twirled the strings together, her fingers moving gracefully unlike his, that moved to roughly and sharp. Jack pursed his lips when she finished with a beautiful bow tie, and for some reason, he finally began to understand why she even bothered to drag him out here to do this.

To simply tie the empty holes in his life together with knots.

It was that simple.

"So you get it now?"

"Yeah.. Kinda."

"Ready to tie all the other leaves and make this tree absolutley beautiful? !"

His lips twitched, and it curved into a rare smile. Well it was more like a smirk, but it was still a smile. Carly flashed him her own kind of smile also, as she heard him reply.

"Yeah."


End file.
